to the future

My dream is to own my own quilt/fabric shop. And on this road to my goal, I need to pay off some debt. A friend offered a loan to me to pay off all my bills. We have been friends for 15 years and he has money; enough money to back my business. He started a business about 5 years ago and has expanded into 3 more in other states. This week, all bills will be paid off; the checks will be sent in and officially on paper I will look debt free. Can you imagine how many offers of credit I will get. Also, I am to send him half of what I would pay a month and bank the other half to show I am serious about this. When I come back from vacation the checks will have cleared. I am so excited. My plan had been to seriously start researching things to the point of writing a business plan. I am hoping that in the next 3 years I will have banked enough to do this. A quilting friend will be retiring then and we'd like to go into business together on this. We shall see.